"There are countless horrible things happening all over the world and horrible people prospering, but we must never allow them to disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to sabotage and annoy them whenever possible." -Auberon Waugh

Friday, June 21, 2013

Venus flytraps look pretty lame next to this thing

In its native Chile, Puya chilensis uses its enormous neon spikes to trap sheep in the Andes mountains. After razor-sharp spines on the tips of its leaves ensnare the animal, it starves to death and decomposes at the base of the plant, becoming its favored fertilizer.

10 comments:

Sounds like a lovely decorative plant for the perimeters of the yard. If you make a few casual comments around the neighborhood that the nectar of the plant has hallucinogenic effects, well, you'll never need to fertilize.

Using them for decorative borders in DC sounds like a winning idea. After all, politiciians are no more admirable today than they were in the Victorian Era, when Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" included a song by Koko, the Lord High Executioner, about the little list he had of potential execution victims, among whom were:

And apologetic statesmen of a compromising kind,Such as Whatchamacallem, Thingummybob, and likewise,Well never mind.And Tut-tut-tut and Whatshisname, and likewise you know who,The task of filling up the blanks I'd rather leave to you.But it really doesn't matter whom you put upon the list,For they'd none of them be missed, they'd none of them be missed.